Cai Yingbo
AN exhibition named Germany & China Boulevard, a part of “Germany and China- moving ahead together” event, the most wide-ranging event series ever initiated by Germany abroad, will run from Nov. 7 to 15 at the Guangzhou Tianhe Sports Center, showing Germany’s urban planning experience and plans for the future.
Following the theme of “sustainable development of urbanization,” the two-month long events in Guangzhou from October to December will invite experts from Guangdong Province and Germany to discuss issues on city planning, energy saving, environment protection and transportation. Besides, Germany will also present itself in all its cultural, economic, scientific and social diversity during the events.
“The event series chose Guangzhou as the third stop, following Nanjing and Chongqing. The events in Guangzhou are to enhance local residents’ understanding of German culture, education, economy, science and technology, environmental protection and construction,” Peter Ammon, State Secretary of the German Federal Foreign Office, said on the opening ceremony in Guangzhou on Sept. 26.
As a part of cultural exchange during the events, German conductor Peter Ruzicka and clarinet player Jorg Widmann together with Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra presented the audience a wonderful symphony concert in the Guangzhou Xinghai Concert Hall after the opening.
“Guangdong and Germany have had closer relations in recent years. Shenzhen established a sister-city relationship with Nuremberg in 1997, while Guangzhou set up a sister-city relationship with Frankfurt in 1998,” Liu Xiaojie, deputy secretary general of Guangdong provincial government, said in the conference.
The trade turnover between Guangdong and Germany reached US$16 billion in 2007, up 15% from the previous year. Germany has an investment of US$1.5 billion in 296 projects in Guangdong, according to Liu.
The “Germany and China moving ahead together” is a three-year-long, Sino-German cooperative program from 2007 to 2010. The series is under the joint patronage of Germany’s Federal President Horst Khler and China’s President Hu Jintao, and will make stops in six regional cities, including Nanjing, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Wuhan, Changchun and Shanghai.
The event series is hosted by the German Foreign Office, which is cooperating with the Goethe Institute and the Asia-Pacific Committee of German Business (APA).